roberge



Patented Apr. 1, 1384.

(No Model.) A I A f D; ROBERGE 8; 1 ROBEBGE, Jr. APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTS 0N RAILW YLs.

UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

* :onvn) ROBERGE AND DAVID ROBERGE, JR, on NEW Yemen. Y.

APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 296,065, dated April 1, 1884.

Application filed March 9, 1883. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, DAVID ROBERGE and DAVID ROBERGE, Jr., both citizens of the .United States, residingin the city of New York, in the county and State of New York,

have jointly invented an Improved Apparatus for Preventing Accidents on Railways; and

we hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference o Is within a certain distance of another train, so

u that whenever a train is unexpectedly or accidcntally stopped the danger of any other train running into the same is obviated. It

can also be used to give notice of the approach of trains moving in opposite directions on the a same track.

. 25 I give notice to the engineer of an approaching Our improved apparatus is constructed to operate automatically, so asto train by the sounding of an alarm on his engine, and is therefore equally as certain and effective in its operation at night as it is in the day-time. For this purpose we employ devices, hereinafter particularly described,

which are operated by contact with a projecting arm fixed on the engine-cab of the trains,

and which we place at certain intervals along the side of the track. These devices are operated in pairs, the one beingfixed at any convenient distancefrom the othersay one.

, mile, more or lessand each is provided with a pulley, which said pulleys are connected by a wire belt, so that whenever one of them is turned the other will also be turned, and they make a partial revolution by contact with a passing train. They are rotated by means of an arm attached to the foremost of the pair, which arm, when in itsnormal position, is placed so that the projecting arm on the engine of a passing train will come in contact therewith and thereby cause the pulleys to make a partial revolution, and the latter are held by a catch on the farthest pulley in the position into which they have been brought parts in all the several figures.

catch is released the pulleys and their arms are brought into their normal position; and thus, in the case of trains following each other in the usual direction on the same track-that is, the right-hand track-an alarm is given to the engineer whenever, his train approaches within a certain distance of a train ahead of him -or, in other words, he is notified by the alarm that there is a train before him somewhere between the two pulleys-and in the case of trains approaching each other on the same track from opposite directions, whenever one of them passes a pulley which has its arm in position to sound the alarm, the engineer is notified that there is a train ahead of him.

The invention consists in an apparatus for preventing collisions on railways, composed of devices, hereinafter particularly described, which are movedsynchronously, in pairs, by passing trains, and provided with means whereby an alarm is sounded on an engine that may pass the same while set to danger by an other train, as hereinafter specified; and it further consists in the novel constructions of said devices, as hereinafter fully described.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure I is a perspective view of a portion of a railway provided with our improved apparatus. Fig. 2 is a plan View of the same. Fig. 3 is a front elevation of one of the pair of devices above mentioned, and Fig. 4 a similar view of the other one'of the pair. Fig. 5 is a horizontal section on the linear w of Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 a side elevation of the device shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 7 shows a modification hereinafter explained.

Similar letters of reference indicate the sam A A may represent the track of a railroad, and B the cab of a locomotive-engine, which may be of ordinary construction, but provided with a projecting horizontal arm, a, the purpose of which is hereinafter explained.

0 represents the foremost of my improved devices, or that one which a train moving on the track in the usual direction will arrive at first, and G is the farthest of said devices. These devices are mounted on standards or posts D D, of suitable construction, which are firmly fixed in the earth by the side of the track. The device 0 is constructed as follows:

(1 is a pulley, which turns on a shaft or pin, 6, secured in the upper part of the standard D. On the face of said pulley is secured a rod or arm, f, the outer end of which projects beyond the periphery of the pulley, and when in its normal position is placed so that it will make contact with the arm a of any engine that may pass it moving in the direction of the arrow The mode of contact is shown in Fig. 3, the arm f being carried forward by said arm to until its end reaches the point a, where the arm a passes out of contact with it. On said pulley is also secured another arm or bar, 9, which is placed thereon at such an angle to f that it will be brought into the position shown by the dotted lines when f is brought to the point a. A spiral spring, h, having one of its ends fixed to the pin 0 and its other end fixed to the pulley (1, draws said pulley and arm f back into their normal position whenever the same are free to move. 0 is similarly constructed, being composed of a pulley, (1, corresponding to the pulley d, and placed in line therewith, or in such position that an endless belt, '5, of wire, stretched over the two, will cause them to make corresponding and simultaneous movements.

h is a spiral spring, one end of which is fixed to the pin 0, upon which the pulley d rotates or turns, (and which is fixed in the upper part of the standard D,) the other end of said spring being fixed to the pulley cl. This spring 7/ is much weaker than the spring h, and tends to draw its pulley cl in a direction the opposite of that in which 71. draws the pulley d, the object of this being to assist the forward movement of the pulley d whenever the pulley dis rotated by a passing train, as above described, and thereby avoid unequal movements of said pulleys, and also to lessen the force of the concussion between the arms a and f. Said pulley d is also provided with an arm, placed at such an angle relatively to the arm f that when the latter is brought to the point a (see Fig. 3) by the rotation of the pulley d, said arm 9 will be brought into the position shown by the dotted line a.

k is a spring-catch of any suitable form, which engages with an inclined projection, Z, on the rim of the pulley, or enters a notch in thesame, wheneverthe end of the arm 9 has been brought to the point a.

m is a gong or alarm, located in any suitable,

part of the engine-cab B, which is struck by a hammer, n, fixed on the end of apivoted wire through the side of said cab, and is arranged to strike the arm g when it passes the same as it occupies the position shown by the dotted line 8, and thereby sounds the alarm. The rod 0 is of thin wire, so that itwill yieldwhen it makes contact with g, and will not displace the latter.

The operation is as follows: Supposing the train to be moving in the direction of the arrow y, when it arrives at O the arm a will come in contact with the arm f and carry the end of the latter to a, at the same time rotating the pulley d, and correspondingly rotating d until the arm g is brought to'the point a. In

this position the catch in engages with the stop Z and retains the pulleys in the position into which they have been brought. The train passing on and arriving at O, the arm acomes in contact with the top of the catch is and releases the same from the pulley, and both pulleys are carried back to their normal position by the force of the spring h,- but supposing that while the train is passing from O to C an other train moving in the same direction arrives at G, then the arm 9 being in the position shown by s, the alarm on this engine will be sounded, and the engineer notified that there is a train ahead of him somewhere between G and 0. Again, supposing that while the train is passing between C and 0 another train from the opposite direction upon the same track arrives at G, then the alarm is sounded on the engine of the latter train by reason of the arm 9 being in the position shown through the opposite side of the cab, and thus strike the alarm whenever its outer end comes in contact with g.

In the practical application of our invention on railroads having but one track, or where it is usual to run trains in opposite directions upon the same track, we propose to employ two lines of the apparatus arranged in sec-' tions to overlap each other, so that the pulley d of one of said lines will be about midway betwecn d and d of the other of said lines; hence if the pulleys constituting each pair are set at, say, one mile apart, there will be one of each kind of pulley at intervals of one-half of a mile. The object of this arrangement will be understood by referring to Fig. 1, supposing that a train moving in the direction opposite to the arrow g has passed 0 before the train B arrives at O, and while the latter is within half a mile of O. In this case B will have operated the pulley d of the overlapping section when it passed the pulley d of said section, and when the first-mentioned train arrives at the pulley d of said overlapping section its engineer will be notified of the approach of the train 13.

IIO

, In the drawingsthe apparatus is shown as being placed only on one side of the track and operated by trains coming from theright; but

in order that the alarms may also be operated by trains coming from the left, another similar set of apparatus may be placed on the other side of the track likewise.

In the modification shown in Fig. 7 the construction of the two devices and C is similar to that above described, except that the pulleys are operated by a single wire, j, one end 1 of which is secured to the pulley d and its other having loops 1', through which the wirest' (or j) are passed and work loosely therein; or, if

y preferred, the loops r may be dispensed with and the wire q attached to the main wire when a single wire, j, is used; but where there are curves in the road the wires '5 or j are passed over pulleys attached to the posts E, so as to keep the same as nearly parallel with the track as may be practicable. These are not shown in the drawings, as it is not deemed necessary to do so.

0 represents the first of the next pair of similar devices on the track, and answers to 0. It may be placed in theposition shown in Fig. 1.-that is to say, slightly beyond 0, or, if preferred, on the other side 01C, as shown in Fig.

2, so that the several sections along the road will overlap each other. In that case suitable provision is made to prevent the wires of one section interfering with those of the section which it overlaps, which may be done by any convenient means.

What we claim as our invention is- 1. An apparatus for preventing collisions on railways, composed of the pulleys d and d, placed at suitable distances apart along the side of the track and connected by a belt or wire, so as to be moved in unison with each other by contact with the passing trains, as described, the said pulley d being provided with the arms f and g and spring h, and said pulley d provided with the arm 9 and spring h and catch 70 Z, and the whole constructed substantially as described, to operate in the manner set forth.

2. The device 0, composed of the following parts in combination, namely: the pulley d, fitted to rotate on the pin or arm 6' and provided with the spring h and arm 9, the springcatch k Z, and mechanism, substantially as described, for operating the device from a passing train, as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In combination with the pulleys d and (1, connected by a belt or wire, as described, and provided with the arms f and g and g, respectively, the spring-catch is Z and the alarm device m n 0, attached to the engine-cab B, as and for the purpose set forth.

DAVID ROBERGE.

DAVID ROBERGE, JR.

Witnesses: I

J OHN S. THORNTON, M. H. ToPPING. 

